Press Release
November 2, 2011

PHL TO HOST MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CONFAB OF NATIONS ROOTED IN LATIN LANGUAGES

Unión Latina, the international organization of neo-Latin languages, will hold its next major conference in Manila on October 2012 to coincide with the yearly celebration of the Dia del Galeon festival.

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara met with Liza Ginzburg, Unión Latina Director for Culture and Communication, to discuss the details of the confab at the sidelines of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris last week

The conference will focus on Latin languages and culture, and highlight the unique and strategic position of the Philippines as a bridge for dialogue between Asia, Europe and Latin America.

It will bring together participants from the 37 member-nations of the Unión Latina, as well as tap the Filipino-Spanish community in the Philippines. The Instituto Cervantes, the cultural arm of the Spanish government, and the embassies of Spain, France and Latin American nations will also serve as major partners.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for the Philippines to revive and promote its historical importance among this group of nations," said Angara, the official representative of the Philippines to the Unión Latina.

"Throughout the 250 years of the Galleon Trade, the Philippines served as the hub of global commerce. We facilitated the exchange of ideas, literature, art, goods, products, plants, recipes and institutions in a scale unmatched in history," he explained.

"The Philippines is singularly important to this period of world history--and to the individual histories of the 35 other nations involved in it.

"For this reason, we should be all the more proud of our heritage and strive to promote it together with nations with whom we share important values and a common past," said Angara.

Unión Latina was created in 1954 in Madrid, Spain, and has existed as an institution since 1983.

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